A Victorian family in their own wordsBy Patricia Neate

In 2005, Patricia Neate inherited a dusty Regency desk that had once belonged to her husband's great grandfather, George Augustus Macirone.

Inside she found a treasure trove of family letters roughly spanning the reign of Queen Victoria - stories of love and loss, mental illness and manic invention, grand houses and debtors’ prison, self-sufficiency, suffering and sacrifice. She began to read. She began to transcribe. And finally she began to write.

More than a decade later, Patricia completed “All My Darlings”. It is an extraordinary achievement: a quotidian tale of Victorian life, a vital social history, and a simple family portrait - open-ended, unguarded and brimming with humanity.